A major influence on the French and German writers and philosophers of the XXth century

In revolt against Christianism, Nietzsche was the son
of a Lutherian minister, who had studied classical philology
at the univesities of Bonn and Leipzig.

Nietzsche, for a time, was a close friend of Richard
Wagner, and his first book, Die Geburt Der Tragodie Aus Dem
Geist Der Musik (The Birth of Tragedy Out of the Spirit of
Music) deals partly with his music.

Due to
syphilis, in his last years Nietzsche suffered from mental
disease and breakdowns. In Turin, in1889, one year before
his death, he collapsed in the street.

Goebbels, the
father of propaganda and one of the main promoters of
Nazism, liked Nietzsche's view of 'Herrenmensch',
vindicating a new type of man who was mastering
manipulation of the masses, erecting himself as a
law.

Nietzsche, however, strongly opposed
German nationalism and biological racism.